Doll Bones Read Online Free PDF

wide and spoke in a flat, affectless tone. “Maybe I’m not Poppy anymore. Maybe I didn’t know not to hold my breath and I learned the hard way. Maybe a spirit possessed me and now it’s warning you, because it’s too late. The spirits are already inside yooOOooouUUuu—”
    “Come on, stop ,” Alice said, shoving Poppy’s shoulder. They both began to laugh.
    Leo laughed nervously along with them. “That’s why it’s a scary story. Because you can’t do the one thing that would protect you—you’ll never know if you held your breath long enough or let it out too soon. And you can’t hold your breath forever.”
    “The smiling was creepy,” said Zach. “Anyone tell you that you have a creepy smile, Poppy?”
    She looked very pleased with herself.
    They walked a few blocks more and then came to the place where Leo split off for home. He waved good-bye and headed off, cutting across a big lawn toward a trailer park.
    Then it was just Alice and Poppy and Zach walking the few blocks to the development where their houses were clustered, all three nearly identical from the outside. His heart started to speed up again and his legs turned to lead because there was no way to avoid the conversation that was coming, even though he wanted to with all his might.

CHAPTER FOUR
    T HE AIR WAS COOL, THE TREES BRIGHT WITH YELLOW and red leaves, and lawns thick with a wilted carpet of brown. A gust of air shook the branches above Zachary and blew his bangs over his eyes. He pushed them back impatiently and looked up at the cloudless sky.
    He thought of all of them—all his characters, stuck in the duffel bag, rats chewing at the edges. He thought of bugs crawling over them and trash dumped on top of them. He thought of the folded-up Questions, still in his backpack, and of how he’d said William’s nightmare was being buried alive.
    “Hey,” said Alice. “Do you guys want to meet up? I have an idea for what might—”
    “I can’t,” Zach said quickly. He’d planned out a whole speech the night before, lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling of his room, but he couldn’t remember any of it now. He took a deep breath and blurted out the only thing he could think to say. “I don’t want to play anymore.”
    Poppy frowned in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
    For a moment, it seemed possible to take the words back, to tell Poppy and Alice what had really happened. He could explain what his dad had done and how angry he was and how he had no idea what to do now except be angry. He could tell them how he didn’t want all the stories to remain unfinished. He could tell them how he felt like pieces of himself were gone, like part of him had been thrown out with his action figures.
    “I’ve been really busy with school and basketball and everything,” he said instead, his voice low. “I mean, you guys can keep playing or whatever.”
    “You mean ever? Like you don’t want to play ever again?” When Poppy got upset, her neck would flush a blotchy red. He could see it coloring, as pink as her wind-whipped cheeks. She launched into a slightly desperate negotiation. “It’s just that we’re in the middle of something big. We came all the way through the Gray Country and to the Blackest Sea. Couldn’t we just finish this part?”
    He’d been looking forward to crossing swords with the leader of the mermaids, who knew the way to an ancient underwater city full of secrets—including the secret to completing the Queen’s quest and lifting her curse—plus there was the promise of fighting sharks. There were even hints that they might find a clue to William the Blade’s parentage, plus the treasure of the Shark Prince—piles of gold and jewels so vast that Lady Jaye had been questing after it since she had first heard the story as an orphan beggar child. Remembering how awesome it was going to be made every new thought about playing hurt like the back of a shoe rubbing against a burst